By Staff Report
Gov. Ron DeSantis moved quickly Wednesday, July 1 to designate two Islamic groups, several foreign criminal organizations and an anti-fascism movement as terrorist organizations under a new state law that took effect the same day.
The designations include the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the Muslim Brotherhood and antifa. They must still be approved by the Florida Cabinet, which includes Attorney General James Uthmeier, Chief Financial Officer Blaise Ingoglia and Agriculture Commissioner Wilton Simpson.
CAIR has said it plans to challenge the designation in court.
The new law (HB 1471), passed during the 2026 legislative session, also outlines procedures for expelling students at state universities who “promote” support for designated terrorist organizations.
“We’ve got to draw a very strong line in the sand here,” DeSantis said at the Attorney General’s Office of Statewide Prosecution in Tampa. “We’ve seen this creep throughout the country over many, many years.”
The law was crafted to reinforce an executive order DeSantis issued in December designating CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations.
In March, U.S. District Judge Mark Walker issued a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of that executive order, ruling it violated CAIR’s constitutional rights by targeting those who provide the organization with material support.
CAIR also plans to challenge the new law, saying it “dramatically expands Florida’s authority to both label and punish groups.”
“Gov. DeSantis is seeking to unilaterally silence a leading American civil rights nonprofit and punish those who support it,” Scott McCoy, deputy legal director of the Southern Poverty Law Center on behalf of CAIR, said in a statement.
According to the governor’s office, the law is intended to identify and combat terrorist organizations operating in Florida.
The governor’s announcement did not define antifa, though DeSantis said the movement “practically lives in Portland.”
His recommendations also include more than 90 foreign organizations already designated as terrorist organizations by the federal government, including Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua, Mexico’s Cartel de Sinaloa and Cartel del Golfo, and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
DeSantis said he expects the Cabinet to quickly consider the designations and argued they are based on conduct rather than ideology.
“Even though I don’t like antifa’s ideas, I mean, they’re militant leftists,” DeSantis said. “It’s their actions and what they’re involved with that’s very destructive. And the same with Tren de Aragua, same with (the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps), obviously they’re a revolutionary military Islamic organization, but they’re also the leading fermenter of terrorism worldwide.”
The law authorizes the state’s chief of domestic security — currently Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Mark Glass — to recommend domestic and foreign terrorist organization designations.
It also bars Florida courts from enforcing provisions of foreign or religious law, with particular emphasis on Islamic Sharia law, and requires Florida College System institutions to expel students who “promote” designated terrorist organizations.
Under the law, “promotion” includes conduct that can be reasonably interpreted as threatening violence, disrupting the learning environment, infringing on the rights of others, or providing material support to or recruiting for a designated organization.
The measure also prohibits schools affiliated with designated terrorist organizations from receiving state K-12 scholarship funds and bars public colleges and universities from using state or federal funds to support programs or activities that promote such organizations.
The Republican-controlled Legislature approved the bill by votes of 80-25 in the House and 25-11 in the Senate.
During debate, Democrats argued the measure and a related public records exemption (HB 1473), which shields records explaining how terrorist designations are made, could deprive affected groups of due process.
Opponents also raised concerns that students and others could face consequences without being convicted of a crime if they are accused of supporting a designated organization.
AMBER PATINO 